There are times the shootout is tedious, exhausting and stale, a ponderous skills competition usually made to look worse than it actually is because the NHL’s three-on-three overtime setup is so close to hockey paradise you can feel sun on your skin.

There are, however, moments when the shootout stops time, leaving you finger-tapping your phone to tell all your dearest friends that eminently cool thing you just saw.

In Vancouver tonight, both of those feelings were experienced.

A miserable game that lacked verve and atmosphere came to life because in the end Elias Pettersson willed it into existence.

He is in the midst of his sixth NHL month and there are plays in his box of instruments that he hasn’t yet attempted.

He pulled one out tonight to pump up a flagging Rogers Arena crowd in what was the biggest shootout flex the Canucks have had in years.